Turn of Events
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Hunting for dinner turns into rescuing a group of survivors from a herd of walkers.
1. Turn of Events

Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss and TWD belongs to whoever holds the copyright.

Written for the 2018 August Fic-A-Day, Day 8.

"This is stupid; we can't track wild animals." Faith walked between the trees and tried to avoid the worst of the underbrush, but not really bothering to be quiet. She didn't make much noise, footsteps excluded, but who knew who or what was hiding out here just waiting to catch them unaware.

"Not in the traditional way, no, but we have a heightened awareness of our surroundings if we just pay attention to our instincts. This allows us to sense if there's anything demonic or potentially dangerous in the area."

"We can't eat demons, B, or people." Buffy very deliberately didn't roll her eyes. It had been a while since they'd found something edible that wasn't crackers or something else that would only keep them going for a little while. Hence the hunting for deer or whatever else might be out there. The lack of food was getting to both of them, but all they needed was to find one house that hadn't already been searched top to bottom for food. Heck, even a can of cold peas sounded great about now.

Their car had run out of fuel a while back and without another car nearby, or a convenient gas station, they'd been forced to abandon it. The positive part was that walking took care of some of their restless energy as did the heavy packs they carried. Before leaving the car behind they had repacked their stuff, only bringing what was strictly necessary. Water, food, medicine, clothes, weapons, and a few reference books. Chances were they would have to ditch the books pretty soon, it was unlikely they would need them and they took up too much space to be worth it.

A few weeks into the apocalypse they'd caved and gathered a few handguns and shotguns, plus any ammunition they could find which didn't cut into their precious packing space. Their inner Slayer would rather use blades or blunt weaponry, but sometimes it just wasn't feasible. Shooting into a herd to thin it out was more effective and lessened the chance of them dying. The sound was an issue, but it was a choice they had to make each time they came across a large group. It didn't mean they liked the projectile weapons, but it was a matter of necessity and survival.

Each of them carried one gun in a thigh holster, stolen from fallen soldiers, a katana or a sword, extra ammunition, and a variety of knives and stakes. Some habits did die hard, even if they hadn't seen or sensed a single vampire since a week after civilization broke down completely. The stakes had a dual purpose though as they killed walkers just as easily as they had killed vampires before, just as long as they aimed for the head instead of the heart. Supernatural strength was great that way.

Bringing her wandering thoughts back to the present, Buffy replied, "No, but it should still work on predators, and where there are predators there should also be prey." Her fellow Slayer didn't respond, but her footsteps became lighter and she focused more on their surroundings. They walked in silence for a while as it got darker and darker around them.

Suddenly, in the distance in front of them, they heard the tell-tale sound of shuffling feet. Sharing a silent look they picked up the pace before they began flat-out running. Yes, it was late and they needed food, but they still needed the fight, and the fewer walkers there were the better for the remaining survivors out there.

When they reached the back of the herd they slowed down slightly so they were capable of chopping off the top of the head of the walkers they passed. Seeing that the group were rather widespread they separated with Buffy going to the left of it and Faith to the right. As they sliced their way through the not-entirely dead, Buffy began picking up a group of people laughing somewhere further in front of the herd. Thinking on her feet she sped up, chopping off heads as she ran past and by the time she reached the clearing she could hear a conversation about a watch of all random things. She could also see the light from a fire between the trees, along with the smell of cooked fish, probably that nights dinner. Her own stomach grumbled at her, reminding her of her own lack of proper nutrition.

Pushing her hunger down, she ran into the open area of the camp, startling everyone, including a blonde woman in her early twenties who was on her way to the bathroom if the last part of the conversation she'd overheard was true. "Get up and grab your weapons! There's a herd coming straight for the camp!" Then she turned around and ran back the same way she'd arrived. Behind her, several women screamed and the men began yelling, but the walking corpses had almost reached the camp. The ones who had been on their way to walk past the camp immediately changed direction and headed towards the loud noise. Right after stabbing a walker in the head with a knife she heard a man scream, followed by flesh being ripped off some poor fool.

The next fifteen minutes were filled with screaming and gunshots. Somewhere in the chaos she and Faith were back to fighting side-by-side again, and once that happened it was smooth sailing - or rather an easy killing. Not long after another group of people joined the fight, someone who had come from the road on foot. Judging by one of the men yelling "Carl!" into the crowded camp and a child answering him, they were obviously a part of the group. There was no clear leader in this group, no rules, or even plans for situations like this. Everyone just seemed to panic and make as much noise as they could, instead of being quiet and hiding so as not to attract attention.

One of the new arrivals, the man who had called for the child, appeared to have some kind of leadership, but another man, one of the ones remaining in the camp, seemed to be challenging him for it. Or perhaps it was the other way around. Either way, the newcomer managed to calm down the survivors. While he tried to talk them down and comfort others, she and Faith went from body-to-body and stabbed it in the head with a knife or sword.

"What are you doing?" Another blonde woman, this time in her early- or mid-thirties, had moved to intercept them so they couldn't get to the next body. She was holding the arm of the other blonde Buffy had seen earlier.

"Making sure they don't get back up and start eating anyone." Faith's reply was curt as she easily side-stepped the new arrivals and plunged her knife into a downed woman's forehead. Her face and clothes showed she'd been one of the people who had been camping in the quarry they were in, rather than one of the walkers.

Anger showed on the woman's face, "They're already dead! They need to have been bitten or scratched first, then they can be turned into one of those... Things!"

"We're all infected," Buffy interrupted while the brunette kept moving to the next body. "It doesn't matter how we die unless the brain is destroyed we'll come back as one of them." Then she added, "She's dead after the herd attacked, that means she was bitten even if we can't see the wound."

It was one of the few things the Council had been sure of before they'd lost contact. Whatever caused the dead to rise was an airborne virus and they were all either already infected or they would be soon. Death meant turning into a flesh-eating corpse, and they'd been sternly told to stab anyone who had died in the head to make sure they would stay properly dead. The same applied to those who had already risen.

The last phone call between Buffy and the Council had been a somber one; Giles had been bitten and had then been put into isolation for observation in an attempt to learn more, and Xander was already dead along with at least 400 Slayers around the world who had tried to stop the dead from attacking. No one had managed to get into contact with Willow and Kennedy, who had been in New York City visiting Kennedy's family. It didn't mean they were dead, but in a city that large...

Dawn was in Tibet visiting Oz and his family. Buffy had insisted she take two Slayers with her, and Vi and a girl Dawn's age had volunteered. They'd seen it as a working vacation and even Dawn hadn't complained when she'd seem who would accompany her. It had made her happy to know there was someone there to protect her sister when she herself couldn't, and now she just prayed they were all safe there in the lesser populated area. Dawn wasn't a child anymore, but she wasn't a Slayer either. Hopefully, they'd had fun before everything came crashing down.

The Slayer Activation Spell had given 1000 girls the powers of a Slayer, but not all of them had survived in the intertwining years. 300 girls and young women had been killed before the apocalypse had hit, and with the 400 they knew had lost their lives to walkers there were maybe 300 Slayers left. Neither she nor Faith knew who were still alive and where they were located, all they knew for certain was that the two of them were alive and they intended to stay that way. Although both of them had had Slayer Dreams were they saw their sisters get killed by this new kind of undead, it hadn't been anyone either of them had known.

As Buffy was distracting the blonde women and Faith kept securing the quarry, a man wearing a sheriff's hat and full uniform came over and joined them. "Did you just say we're all infected with whatever this is? How do you know?"

Happy both about the continued distraction and that someone finally asked intelligent questions, she replied, "Before the world fell apart I worked for an organization that kept track of strange happenings around the world, and the dead coming back to eat the living definitely counts as 'interesting' to us. We studied the people who were bitten or scratched and those who weren't. Several people who hadn't been in contact with the walkers died and still turned into one of them. One was killed by other means and one by a car accident, they both came back and they both tried to bite those near them."

It was close enough to the truth. Their work had been deemed highly classified by every government who knew about their organization, and as long as they didn't meet any vampires or demons it would stay that way. The survivors didn't need anything else to keep them awake at night.

The man's brown eyes stared into hers for several long seconds and then he held out his hand, "I'm Rick Grimes, and this is Andrea and Amy Harrison."

Buffy shook his hand, carefully not applying too much pressure. "Buffy Summers."

"And your friend?" He indicated Faith with his head. She'd managed to get over to the other side of camp and just past the treeline. Beside them, Andrea was getting upset all over again.

"Faith Lehane. We were in Atlanta checking on the situation when the electricity went down and people began panicking in earnest."

Amy managed to beat the others to the next question, and Buffy smiled slightly. "So she's just a co-worker?"

"We work together, but we've been friends for a long time." Apparently, the younger sister didn't share her older sister's opinion on making sure the dead really stayed dead.

"Not to be abrupt, but we need to deal with the dead and then you guys need to move somewhere else. This place is compromised and dangerous. You have nothing to keep the walkers out, or hostile for that matter. It isn't safe."

That had the other potential leader coming over and start arguing. Rick introduced him as Shane Walsh, a fellow sheriff. As the discussion wore on, more and more people got involved until finally, Rick managed to break it up by insisting everyone got some shut-eye and they would continue in the morning when everyone had gotten some rest.

The two Slayers agreed verbally but silently communicated to each other that they would keep watch over everyone for the rest of the night.


	2. Let's Talk

Written for the 2018 August Fic-A-Day, Day 10.

The next morning saw Buffy and Faith keeping watch over the sleeping survivors they'd helped last night. They had chosen a vantage point up in one of the trees surrounding the campsite. After everyone had gone to bed in their tents, or in a few select cases, in Dale's RV or inside the cars, the two Slayers had done a thorough check of the immediate area to eliminate any stragglers or any other unwanted guests. They each ended up killing four walkers and when they were satisfied the area was as safe as it was going to get given the circumstances, they found a large tree and jumped up. It gave them a good view of most of the camp.

As the early streams of sunlight began lightening up the night sky, the two women began a low conversation, "I get that they are civilians, but there's no security here, no one keeping watch at night, and no clear leadership. It's like Sunnydale all over again, just with adults instead of a few twenty-somethings and a group of frightened teenagers." Faith thought about it for a few seconds and then added, "Actually, it's worse. They're sleeping in *tents* for fuck's sake."

"Sunnydale was bad at the end, but we had a plan. It was a bad one, but we were trying, and I did my best to keep everyone safe. These people seem to think boxes on a string is adequate protection against flesh-eating corpses with no understanding of limitations." It had been two months since the global outbreak and ten weeks since they had first heard about the dead rising as something other than vampires. As people kept reporting sightings of these unusual undead. Giles, Xander, and a couple of 17-year-old Slayers had been sent to study the new phenomena. Xander had been the Scooby Gang's first casualty and Giles' their second, but one of the Slayers who had gone with them had also been bitten. No one had told her and Faith if Xander had been reanimated or not, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"It was, and those girls were a lot more sheltered than they should've been. But these people," Faith used her hand to indicate the sleeping people below, "they're adults and they've been living the apocalypse for two months. They should know better. If you want to sleep you do it either inside a safe building, inside a locked car, or high enough up that the dead and other predators can't get you. And you keep someone at guard duty at all times. Always."

The two of them had been sleeping in shifts wherever they could find something sturdy with good locks, preferably on the second floor or higher if it was someone's house. Hotels, motels, hospitals, and all other places which were usually full of people had been avoided. You never knew where a walker might be lurking, or a live human being was looking to take advantage of other survivors. Groups of men, or even single ones, were the worst offenders, to neither of their surprises.

Down below them, people began stirring and crawling out of their makeshift homes. Rick the sheriff was one of the first, followed by his wife, Lori, and their son. In the chaos, they jumped down from their vantage point and walked over to Rick, as he had seemed the most level-head of their two options.

"Are you in charge of these people, or is it the other guy?" It never hurt to be certain.

"Shane was in charge before I got here yesterday. Not really sure who's in charge now." Apparently, their resident sheriff was an honest man, but he was also jockeying for the top spot.

Buffy nodded, Shane seemed a little off-kilter, but that could easily be the walker attack affecting his judgment. "We need to gather everyone and check if anyone has been bitten or scratched, or if they need medical attention. Anyone who has been bitten or scratched need to be separated from the group and watched because they will die soon and they will attack us as soon as they reanimate."

She and Faith weren't at the point where they would just kill someone who'd been attacked, but they couldn't be careless with anyone's safety either. Faith continued Buffy's explanation, "Everyone's infected and if a walker so much as scratch you on the arm you will die and come back as one of them. Unless the brain is destroyed."

The following argument was heated but in the end, everyone was given a thorough check and most people passed the test, except for one. A scruffy man named Jim had been bitten in the stomach but tried to explain it away as a simple accident or someone else's blood. This lead to a second argument, this time over whether or not they should try and get to the CDC or simply kill the man in question before he turned.

The camp had a total of 20 people, including herself and Faith. And Jim, although he wouldn't be with them for much longer. There were also four children, but no teenagers which were strange in itself. Eight men, two boys. Eight women, and two girls. The numbers were strangely even.

"HEY!" Faith sort-of yelled in an attempt to both get everyone's attention, but also avoid her voice carrying too far away from the camp. As everyone quieted and turned to her, she informed them. "There's no point in going to the CDC. They can't help; there's no miracle cure. There probably isn't anyone there at all. Chances are it's a crater so whatever they kept there can't get out and make things even worse."

They didn't know for certain if the CDC was truly gone, but it was an educated guess. Most places dealing with diseases, bacteria, and the like had a self-destruct in case of emergency, and the world ending definitely qualified as an emergency. Whoever had worked there were probably either dead, undead and hungry, or had fled a long time ago.

"How do you know? Have you been there or been in contact with them before the phone lines went down?" Lori seemed to be one of those people who just wanted to argue with people, but she did raise some fair questions so Buffy responded.

"Someone we worked with was in contact with them the day before we all lost electricity. They had backup generators, but they only work for so long before they run out of fuel. We were also told that if worse came to worst then they would activate the self-destruct." Then before Lori or anyone else could interject, she added, "They weren't even close to finding a cure, but they informed us it could take months or even years to make a vaccine that would work. If they could even make a vaccine that would be effective against this. They didn't even know where the virus came from or how it was able to spread so fast, let alone how it allows corpses to rise and aggressively eat the living."

Faith took over again, "B's right; the CDC is a no-go, but we need to leave this death trap. More and more walkers are going to leave the cities and we need to be somewhere with fortified walls, food, and water when the increasingly large herds find us."

Buffy sighed, it was true but making them panic wasn't the way to make them cooperate. "Look, you all agree this place isn't safe, right?" Most of them either nodded or mumbled an affirmative, but they clearly weren't happy with having that spelled out. "Right, so we need to go someplace else. Preferably somewhere we can get food; wild animals and fish, if possible. Fruit and vegetables, and easy access to water. We're not familiar with this area, but is there somewhere with all or most of those?"

It was a longshot, but she'd take a maybe at this point, or even somewhere with a few of those. No one seemed to know, even though most of them were local, but at least they seemed to be on board with moving. The thought of more and varied food probably helped. The end result was that they ate a light breakfast, and then all of them began packing. The idea being that once they were done, they would decide what to do with Jim and where they would be going. In the meantime, everyone would think about options of where to go next.


	3. Difficult Decisions

Written for the 2018 August FaD, Day 12.

An hour and a lot of procrastination later and they were finally ready to make some decisions. None of them had much to their name so it shouldn't have taken that long. The two Slayers had been shamelessly eavesdropping on all of the conversations in case they needed to make even more arguments to get them to move away from their makeshift camp, but surprisingly there hadn't really been any. The herd attacking the camp the night before had managed to force them to face reality in a way they hadn't done before and now they were scared for their own safety. There had only been one group of people who had had a different conversation than the rest, and they had made up their minds. But the real issue was what to do with Jim.

Jim was dying. If thousands of hospitals around the country and the entire world couldn't help the bitten, then they had no chance at all. They had three options: 1. They brought him along and kept an eye on him until he succumbed to the infection. Then stab him in the head before he reanimated, and then bury him. 2. Kill him now before he had a chance to harm anyone. Or 3. Leave him behind to turn on his own and then bite whoever was unlucky enough to come across him.

The latter wasn't something the two women were willing to do, it went against all logic. They wanted the undead to be properly dead, not help them kill more people. This group didn't seem to understand the simple fact that a bote or even a scratch was a death sentence, were instead under the impression he would get better, or at least that he wouldn't turn. Given their lack of resources, the obvious thing was to kill him now and be done with it. Legally, if that was even an option anymore, and morally it was the wrong thing to do. Which left taking the dying man with them and wasting precious resources.

Not far away Rick and Shane were gathering the group for the final discussion on where to go, and unsurprisingly they were getting nowhere. Faith, being an impatient soul, to begin with, interrupted them after a short while. "If we can't agree on a place to go, we'll just get in the cars and start driving. Anywhere is better than here, and maybe we'll even find something to eat."

It was a good point and thankfully Rick had given up on going to the CDC after Faith had taken him aside and bluntly got the point across a bit earlier. It was a waste of time and it would get them too close to Atlanta and all the walkers who were still there. Some arguing later and they were finally agreed on just driving away from Atlanta and all of its suburbs. Finding somewhere to stay was one of their goals, preferably a small gated community or a large property with big, thick walls all around it. The other was food and water, as they were lacking in both.

The bright point of the morning was breakfast as there was leftover fish from last nights dinner and some other food they'd managed to find. Plus, squirrels caught by their resident redneck, a man named Daryl, whom most of the group appeared to dislike despite him being one of the most useful members of their group. Hello, hunter? There was someone who could get them food when they were unable to scavenge anything edible. He could also teach them the trade and how to prepare what they caught so it could be eaten. And these people were deliberately alienating him? Self-preservation didn't appear to be a concept they were familiar with at all.

After some back and forth they agreed on who would be driving each vehicle and who would ride with them. The Morales family took their own Jeep. T-Dog, Andrea, and Amy would drive the white van. Shane got the open Jeep with Faith riding shotgun. The Grimes family along with Carol and Sophia took a white-ish car. And finally, Daryl would be driving the last truck with his brother's motorcycle in the flatbed. Buffy chose to ride shotgun so he could maybe teach her something about hunting for dinner. Somehow she was certain it would be very different from hunting vampires and demons, but some of her Slayer abilities should still be useful. Like her supernatural hearing and sense of smell, and, of course, her speed and agility.

As they were about to go over to the cars Morales broke the news his family had agreed on, "We're not coming with you."

"What?" Rick looked mildly confused, "Why not?"

"We have family in Birmingham, we want to be with our people."

Shane gave him a doubtful look. "Are you sure? You'll be without the protection of the group, and there's no guarantee you'll find your family. Everyone has scattered to avoid the walkers, they probably aren't in Birmingham anymore."

When both Morales and his wife, Miranda, agreed they let them go. What else could they do? None of them were prisoners, so if they wanted to split from them it was their choice. It meant the group was down four people, soon to be five, but they'd gained two. It was four fewer mouths to feed, but it still meant there were fifteen of them and there wasn't much food left.

Soon after the Morales family left in their car and took a right at the junction, while the rest of the caravan took the left. They drove for about five hours before the RV broke down and they were stuck in the middle of the road. Once again Jim's fate was up for debate while Dale and Glenn attempted to fix the RV.

"Jim wants to die. He's suffering and there's no help for him. No way to lessen his suffering." Faith first looked Buffy in the eyes and then Rick and Shane. "If he wants to die I'll help him, I already have blood on my hands. Killing Jim is mercy, not murder."

Buffy looked sadly at her friend, she made a good point but it didn't mean she had to like it. Her sense of right said there had to be another way, but she also knew there wasn't. Riley had told her about how the military sometimes had to commit mercy kills for the sake of the rest of the unit. It was never easy, but it was a choice that had to be made. Her thoughts wandered while the others argued, but she made eye contact with her friend and then entered the RV to ask the man in question what he wanted. It was his life, his choice.

Not long after he was being carried outside by Rick and Shane, and put down on the ground with his back against a tree. One by one the group gave him their goodbyes and empty platitudes before finally she and Faith were the only ones standing outside the cars. She waited until both the RV and the Grimes/Peletier car had begun driving before she removed her favorite knife from its sheath and took the few steps needed to get next to the dying man. Behind her, the white van turned back to the road and began slowly following the other two vehicles. Shane gave them a last look before he followed.

Faith went down on one knee in front of Jim, knife held steady in her right hand, "Last chance, is this was you truly want?"

"Yes," he replied in a tired voice. "There's nothing left, just do it. I don't want to turn into one of them." He swallowed, "Do it." Faith gave him one last look before she lifted her hand and stabbed him in the middle of the forehead, fast enough that he never felt a thing. Afterward, she cleaned her blade on a piece of cloth and went straight for Daryl's truck without making eye contact or saying a word. Buffy followed, silently giving her support the way she hadn't done back in Sunnydale all those years ago.

Three days later they were all startled by a huge explosion which lit up even the bright summer sky.


	4. The Second Herd

Written for Twisting the Hellmouth's 2018 August Fic-A-Day, Day 14.

Two days after the unknown explosion they came to a traffic snarl and attempted to navigate through it. Thankfully they'd chosen to leave behind one of their vehicles the day before as they didn't want to use more fuel than necessary. As a result, they were down from four cars, the RV, and Daryl's motorcycle to the RV, the motorcycle, and three cars.

Glenn, Faith, Jacqui, and Shane were in the RV with Dale. Rick, Lori, Carl, Sophia, and Carol were in the white station wagon. T-Dog drove the white van with Amy and Andrea as passengers, and Daryl drove the truck with the motorcycle in the flatbed and Buffy riding shotgun. The two Slayers had deliberately chosen different cars in case there was an emergency and they needed to defend the group from different angles.

The caravan didn't get far into the mess of abandoned cars before the RV broke down for the second time. Daryl and Buffy jumped out and began surveying the area; you never knew what you'd find. Further back Dale and Glenn began trying to fix the old vehicle while the rest of them began to spread out looking for food, water, and whatever else might be needed.

As Buffy and their resident hunter began searching together, Faith interrupted the impromptu search. "Listen up everyone! No one goes anywhere alone. You need to team up with at least one other person; one of you searches for food and the other keeps an eye out for walkers. This is a graveyard and there are still corpses in some of the cars. If you don't see a bullet hole or evidence of them being stabbed in the head then use your knife to make sure."

Buffy added her two cents, "Make sure to look under the cars for crawlers and listen carefully for their shuffling feet and groaning. If you see one, don't scream or raise your voice! We're out in the open and there's nowhere to hide, so the last thing we need is to reveal our position to any herds nearby."

"If you see a walker, stab it. Don't use your guns if you don't have to, they're too loud. If a herd comes in our direction then be quiet and get into the nearest car without making any more noise than you have to. Once you're in the car try and stay still; the walkers are not just attracted to loud noises but also movement, especially sudden movement." They had gone over this before, but some things need to be repeated many times before they were understood and accepted.

Surprisingly, the group accepted the terms and found a partner. Daryl abandoned Buffy to join T-Dog in finding fuel for their cars, so she joined Jacqui and Amy instead. Dale had given Glenn the responsibility of fixing the RV while he went on the roof to keep watch over everyone. Lori and Carol took their kids and went looking for clothes, while Shane and Faith began their hunt for anything edible not far from them. Rick and Andrea remained closed by and explored the cars closest to their own.

The two women had attempted to teach the group how to kill the walkers most efficiently every time they stopped for a longer period, in the hope it would eventually stick. It had soon become obvious Lori, Carol, and Dale were not fighters nor were they really interested in learning. Unfortunately, the two mothers also tried to stop their children from learning. The rest had various skill levels but they were trying, if for no other reason than that they didn't want to die and they realized there wouldn't always be someone there to protect them.

They'd managed to make sure everyone had at least a knife on them at all times. It would've been better with swords or something else with a longer blade to give them more distance, rather than having to go in for a close kill. Which meant they needed to find a sporting goods store somewhere to supply themselves with better weapons. Bows and crossbows would also be a good idea as both of them had given Daryl's weapon of choice envious looks when they'd seen it.

Two hours later and they had managed to find not only several dozen cans of food but also a truck full of water containers, much to everyone's joy. They had also found a number of other useful things in the deserted cars. The scavenger hunt had improved everyone's mood.

"Faith." Buffy's voice was too low for anyone but a Slayer to hear, but she'd picked up the distinct sound of many shuffling feet coming in their direction and her friend hadn't seemed to have noticed. The brunette looked up from the car she'd been rummaging through and listened carefully, and when she heard it she nodded. Soon after they had begun gathering the group and ushering them towards the RV and the van, the two vehicles with the most space. It was also easier to cover the windows so the walking dead wouldn't notice the people inside.

Squeezing 15 people into the RV and the van was a tight fit so the two Slayers volunteered to jump up on the roof of the RV to give the others more room to move. They moved fast before the herd came into view and climbed swiftly onto the roof and got down as flat as possible with Faith facing towards the oncoming herd and Buffy in the opposite direction. Both of them kept a keen eye on the undead as they walked past them to ensure no one decided to remain behind.

The herd proved to be a lot larger than they'd expected, but they didn't seem to have noticed there were live human beings close to them. Instead, they simply shuffled past, with only a few veering off to investigate along the way but they soon rejoined the rest of the herd.

"Should we engage or let them pass?" Faith's whisper was even lower than Buffy's had been earlier due to the lesser distance.

"Let them go. If we start killing them some of the others are going to get out and try to 'help'." The look she got was more telling than any words could've been. "You know how people are, they know nothing about us and what we're capable of. All they see are damsels in distress, it doesn't matter we saved them last time a herd came by. If we engage they're going to come out, guns blazing, to 'save' us from the walkers."

Faith nodded, even if she knew the blonde couldn't see her. They didn't need the words and instead focussed on the undead shuffling past. Ten minutes went by, then twenty. Thirty. Forty. They could still see the back of the herd in the distance, but they made eye contact and went down. If they kept their movements slow they should be okay. Once they were back on the ground they split and each went to a vehicle.

Not long after the rest of their group were standing outside in a semi-circle. "We should stay here for the night and sleep in the cars. Give the walkers a chance to get in front of us so we don't drive right up to them and get surrounded. The last thing we need is to get stuck with walkers all around us."

"What about the supplies we found?" Lori interjected.

"We split it up between all of the cars, in case something happens. Divide it evenly between our bags, so everyone has something in case we get separated."

It was agreed to keep the two children in the RV so they could move around if they wanted to but not get in the way, with Jacqui babysitting. Meanwhile, everyone decided what went where and in whose bag or backpack. Next on the agenda was was who slept where and who would be keeping watch.

In the end, Faith took the first watch and climbed back up on the roof. Rick would take the second three hours later.


	5. Church Bells

Written for the 2018 August FaD, Day 23.

The next morning they risked a small fire to heat some of the canned goods they had found the day before. Buffy stood guard on top of the RV while the others ate their fill. It gave her an excellent overview of the area and made sure they would not be surprised by another herd if it should pass nearby. Faith took her place when she was done and Buffy quickly ate her own hot meal. Once they had finished they did another sweep of the cars in the traffic snarl, both to be thorough and to finish what the herd had interrupted the day before.

Once the scavenger hunt was completed they split the spoils between each person, and then put the rest in the cars and the RV for storage. The two Slayers had made sure everyone had a backpack or a bag where they had to keep their own basic necessities, such as water, food, medicine, clothes, and anything else they might need. People could get lost, get killed, or they could have the backpack or bag stolen, or simply lose it somewhere. So if everyone, including the children, had a little bit of everything they could still get by if the worst happened. At least for a while.

As they were about to separate to get into the various vehicles, they suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of church bells in the distance. It caused them to look at each other in confusion and, in some cases, incredulity. "Didn't the power go down everywhere?" Faith asked no one in particular.

"Maybe it's an old church and some fool thinks it's a good idea to ring the bells to call on the faithful, even if they are the walking dead."

The sad thing was there was probably someone out there who did that or had done it in the last couple of months. Still, they should check it out to see if there were any live people and if there were to make sure they'd stop calling the undead to them. Buffy met Faith's eyes across the circle they were standing in, "We need to go and see what that's about."

"The fuck you do!" Daryl cursed at her, "Some fool wants to invite the geeks to come around and listen to their preaching, that's their problem, not ours!" About half of the group agreed, but Rick and a few others looked thoughtful. "You're not agreeing to this." He looked at the group with disbelief and anger, but those who were unsure looked away from him.

Buffy understood his motivation for not wanting to get involved, but she was a Slayer and it was her duty to protect people from the monsters. Her fellow Slayer was itching for a fight and looked ready to take off into the trees in the direction of the bells. To be honest she wanted the fight as well. Allowing the herd to just stumble past had made her bloodlust peek out and the only way to appease it was to kill something.

"Faith and I will go and check it out, the rest of you can look over the maps we found to see if there's somewhere we might be able to live. Somewhere that's likely to be fortified enough to keep the dead out and preferably including a well and something we can live off of." To neither of their surprise none of them men would allow them to go off on their own. Never mind their fighting abilities and how the two of them had tried to teach everyone else self-defense and how to most effectively kill the biters. Of course not, they needed big, strong men to protect them. She saw Faith roll her eyes when they were looking the other way.

Five minutes later it was agreed that Daryl and T-Dog would join them as well as Andrea. The remaining four men would 'guard' the temporary camp while they were gone. None of them seemed to be under the impression that Carol, Lori, Jacqui, or Amy would be of any help if they were attacked. The unfortunate part was that they were probably right.

The five of them gathered some extra weapons in addition to what they already had on them, and then they began walking into the forest. The bells had stopped ringing by the time they set off, but they knew which direction the sound had come from so they were good as long as they didn't get too distracted and lost their focus and sense of direction.

It took them over 40 minutes to reach the small, wooden church, mainly because the two men didn't trust they knew which way to go. Which was annoying, but they would learn to trust their instincts in time. If they survived long enough.

"Well, fuck. You were right." Daryl said when he caught sight of the building and the surrounding grave markers. It was probably as close to an apology as they were going to get, so they accepted it and moved on. A sign by the road proclaimed it to be the Southern Baptist Church, with a smaller sign, written in red, saying 'welcome bikers!' in capital letters.

They walked across the graveyard, which made her feel strangely at ease while keeping a careful eye out for any shambling corpses. They neither saw nor heard anyone, dead or alive, but they ascended the 10 steps and stopped in front of the red double doors and waited for T-Dog to catch up to them. Meanwhile, the two women listened carefully for any sounds of people on the inside but got nothing. Daryl got ready with his crossbow aimed directly at the door and when he nodded Faith and Buffy each pushed their half of the door open while the hunter moved forward and inside.

The first thing Buffy noticed was the crucifix at the front of the church. It didn't fit as it was something dramatically out of place for a Baptist Church. The second was the three walkers sitting in the pews, all of whom turned when the doors opened and greeted them with hungry groans. She absently noted two of them were male and the third was a female with a rotted white chapel veil on her head. Or maybe it was something else lacy, she wasn't sure.

The corpses rose and shuffled out to the aisle where they were met by the two Slayers who used a knife to stab them in the forehead. Daryl shot the third in the head with one of his bolts, while T-Dog and Andrea kept watching for anyone approaching from the outside. Nothing else moved.

"There's no one alive in here so who rang the bell?" No one had any answers so they searched through the church and then through the annex but found no one alive, dead, or undead. The other half of the structure had a small kitchen, which included canned food, mostly soup, and other non-perishables. It even had half a dozen bottles of unopened water and a small assortment of spices.

In their search, they had come across three wheeled shopping bags and when they discovered the food they went back for them. T-Dog took the two largest ones and brought them back to the others. Faith and Buffy carefully loaded them with the edibles before they did a last inspection of the kitchen, and then they left.

T-Dog insisted on taking one while Faith took the other. Buffy, Daryl, and Andrea surrounded them in a V-formation with the hunter taking the lead and the two blonde women flanking the others where possible. The little group had just gotten back to the tree-line after having crossed the graveyard when the church bells suddenly started up again causing all of them to jump.

Buffy turned and ran back. Behind her Faith let go of the wheeled shopping bag and ran after her. Andrea screamed before she stopped herself by slapping her own hand over her mouth to dampen the sound, but she was frozen to the spot. When the two men began running she unfroze and followed. The two Slayers ran inside but the big, black man ran to the side of the building and a small black box on the wall. After pushing a few buttons the bells stopped and the only sound that could be heard was their breathing and the sound of nature around them.

Buffy and Faith jogged back outside when the noise stopped and discovered the others standing by the control box. "What happened?

"It's automated. The church bells must be on a timer, probably uses batteries." Faith eloquently rolled her eyes and stalked back to their catch.

It hadn't been a total waste of time, but there hadn't been anyone alive here either. The group up on the highway was guaranteed to be pleased with the additional food if nothing else. With any luck, none of the nearby herds had heard the church bells and were headed in this direction. So they got food and water, but not a real fight to appease their inner Slayer.

They began the long trek back to the road, trying not to make any unnecessary noise despite their wheeled bags. On the upside, neither of the men tried to dispute their sense of direction this time and they made it back about half an hour later with their precious cargo.


	6. Another Hunter

Written for the 2018 August FaD, Day 25.

When the five of them returned to the temporary camp it was to find that Rick and Amy had gone off into the woods in an attempt to hunt down fresh dinner. Dale was sitting on the roof of his RV keeping watch and everyone else just seemed to be milling around doing nothing in particular. Mainly just stretching their legs and generally moving after so much time in the cars.

Most of the day would probably be over by the time Rick and Amy came back so there was no point in trying to get back through the traffic snarl. Instead, they decided to move enough of the cars off the road so they could get an early start the day after. It would serve a dual purpose in that it showcased their strength while clearing the road so they wouldn't have to double back and use precious fuel. None of the cars were moved entirely out of the way, just far enough for the RV to be able to drive by without bumping into any of them. All the two Slayers did was push them off the middle of the road where it was easiest to get access.

The feat of strength shocked everyone but the only one who made a fuss about it was Shane, and to a much lesser degree, Lori, and by the sound of his arguments it had more to do with his damaged masculinity than the presence of stronger people in their group. Which figured, Buffy, noted to herself a little annoyed but unsurprised. The rest looked at them with more weariness and apprehension, but they didn't shy away. Group mentality said to stay close to those who could protect you the best, and the two newcomers had just moved to the top of the list.

By the time their two pseudo-hunters came back empty-handed they already had a low fire burning, and when they arrived Lori and Jacqui opened several cans of soup in lieu of a fresh game. The two of them brought along an overweight man with a hunting rifle whom they'd met in the forest while both of them tried to shoot a deer. Both Rick and the other hunter, Otis, had missed it by inches and scared it away.

The stranger had been reluctant to take them to where he was living or even tell them how many they were, so Rick had invited him to come back to the traffic snarl with them and meet the others. The man was on foot, alone, and hunting so it made sense he hadn't traveled far, but none of them were familiar enough with the area to take a gander at where he might be staying.

As they were eating a meager dinner in an attempt to make their provisions last longer, it was time to stop the small talk. "Have you heard the church bells?" Buffy asked, mostly out of curiosity.

The man gave her a confused look, "What church bells?" Then he a light went off, and he exclaimed, "Oh, shi-oot." Changing his choice of curse word half-way through at a glare from the two mothers, who looked pointedly between him and their children. "Sorry. There are no little ones back home."

"The bells? Buffy asked again.

"Right. The Baptist Church has automated church bells, gives the priest more time for the congregation if he doesn't have to ring the bells too. Didn't know no one thought to turn them off. The diseased are attracted to sound so someone should've done it, but." And he hesitated a little before he went on, "People panicked. They fled when the dead began to rise and attack them."

That meant they lived far enough away not to hear the bells every time they rang, or they were truly local and the sound was so familiar they didn't think it was out of the ordinary. The first choice was acceptable but if it was the second then who knew what else they might be missing.

"We turned them off," T-Dog interjected. "Attracting more of the walkers are very, very bad." Otis nodded in agreement, and they spent the rest of the meal mostly silence.


	7. The Greene Farm

Written for the 2018 August FaD, Day 30.

In the end, Otis agreed to let Buffy and Rick come to his home base and meet the rest of his group. He insisted he was not in charge of the group, but rather a man named Hershel Greene had the final say since it was his home. It was fair enough and the three of them began the long trek to what turned out to be a farm further into the countryside.

It proved to be a sprawling and cozy-looking farm, but an entirely unprotected piece of land. Pre-apocalypse it had most likely been their own little paradise. Buffy heard chickens, cows, and even a few horses. There were large fields all around the house and the barn. If it hadn't been for the lack of thick protective walls it would've been sort-of perfect.

A man in 70's met them on the porch with two young women by his side. One was a brunette in her early twenties and the other was a blonde in her mid-teens. Only the youngest of the three didn't look suspicious of them, and that was both good and bad for her. Regardless, they smiled. Or at least Buffy did. She knew she looked harmless and people would dismiss her as a threat. It was a camouflage which had served her well as a Slayer, and it proved to be even more useful post-apocalypse. Being underestimated was a huge advantage at this point, at least as far as anyone threatening them went.

Otis made the introductions; the elder gentleman was the aforementioned Hershel Greene and the owner of the farm. The two young women by his side were his daughters Maggie and Beth. Hershel reluctantly invited them inside for a talk. His entire body language said they were not wanted there and he would rather they leave. It was a point for good manners, she supposed, or they would've been rejected before they got on the steps.

Before they went inside Buffy took a second look around, there were walkers nearby - she could hear them, but there was no one in sight. Dead or alive. Normally they would've gone directly for the sound of voices, and the sound of groaning and shuffling feet would've gotten louder, but they didn't come closer. It sounded as if they were inside somewhere. Maybe the barn? But why would they keep the undead in there?

They were lead into a sitting room and instructed to take a seat, which they did. Otis disappeared further into the house, but a teenage boy came in with a tray full of glasses and a jug full of iced tea. After serving everyone he retreated to a chair next to the blonde girl and took her hand. She wasn't really a tea person, coffee was much more her thing, but a decade and a half, give or take a few years, of Giles and his obsession with tea and she'd gotten used to it. Her inner Giles made sure to remind her that iced tea wasn't proper tea, just like tea bags wasn't proper tea either. She shushed the voice and enjoyed a drink that wasn't water for a change.

She could hear Otis talking to a woman further into the house, telling her what had happened and who they were. Information sharing was good, and hopefully, Mr. Greene would be the same way.

Rick started off the conversation by explaining why they were in the area, what happened to the RV, and about the church bells. He kept it short and to the point, which she approved of. Oversharing wouldn't help.

"Are you asking to stay here?" The question came from the teenage boy who appeared to be impatient to get past the preliminaries. Mr. Greence gave him a look and the boy closed his mouth and backed off a little.

It was Buffy's turn to talk, "No, this place is a death trap. There are no protections against the walkers. Sooner or later a herd is going to pass through the area and they're going to come straight for this farm. Depending on how large it is anyone here may or may not survive the encounter." She turned to Hershel and made sure she had eye-contact, "It's a risk we're not willing to take." The man clearly disagreed with her statement but kept quiet.

Beside her, Rick spoke up again. "We don't want to stay here long-term, but a few days to trade some fresh vegetables and anything else you might have would be appreciated. A day or two, three at the most. Because Buffy is right, this place isn't safe and we need to find somewhere we can fortify properly."

It was good to know Rick had finally caught on to what she was trying to do. He was still partially set on how the world had been Before, but he was moving along well and adjusting. It gave her good hopes for the future. She would rather not have stayed on the farm at all, but contradicting him now would look bad so she kept her own counsel.

"This is not a hotel, we don't rent out to strangers. No matter the situation." The old man was polite but determined. They had nothing to bargain with, nothing these people didn't already have. By the looks of them, they had plenty of food and water. Even enough water to shower given how they smelt of soap rather than weeks or even months worth of sweat and dirt. Goddess, how she missed her daily shower! And just the sense of being clean and the smell of fragrance afterward...

"A compromise then?" Buffy suggested. "Could we park our cars in front of the house for, say, a day and a half?"

All four of them looked suspicious of that, so she kept up her thought process. "We could help out with whatever you need in exchange for fresh produce. We'd be on your property but sleep in our own vehicles. Two nights and we'll be gone early in the morning on the second day." She'd rather keep driving, but the thought of something that wasn't crackers or didn't originate from a can sounded heavenly.

Rick and Mr. Greene haggled over what and where for a while but in the end, he agreed. They would drive over the next morning and stay for 24 hours and then leave. During the day they would help out wherever they were needed and in exchange, they would be allowed to share all meals for the day with the Greene Family. They would also be allowed to attend breakfast before the left.

It wasn't what Buffy had expected, but fresh food was worth it. The next day would also consist of many attempts to get the family to leave for somewhere safer, or at the very least to start building some durable and secure walls around their property. It was unlikely to work but she had to try. They seemed like good people even if they appeared to be under the false impression the walkers were merely sick and there would be some miraculous cure down the line and they would return to normal.

The walkers she was sure were in the barn didn't help either, and she wasn't sure if they attracted others of their kind or if they simply gave the inhabitants of the farm false hope. Either way, they needed to be put out of their own misery. For everyone's safety.

The walk back to the rest of their group was mostly silent, only a few words were exchanged here and there. They would need to pack up the rest of what they'd found and then retrace their route back to the sideroad which led to the Green Farm. They needed medication and there had been a total lack of that in any of the cars in the traffic snarl. It was strange, at least one of the cars should've had a first aid kit, a band-aid, or something for a common headache but there was nothing. Combined with all the canned food and the water truck they had found and it was even stranger.

But that was a problem for another day, tonight they had news for the group and cars to pack.


	8. Moving On

Written for the 2018 August Fic-A-Day, Day 31.

30 days after the stay at the Green Farm and they had lost T-Dog and Shane. T-Dog had sacrificed himself to save Glenn from a group of walkers who had cornered him. He'd already lost a lot of blood after piercing his arm on a metal bar, and he'd made the split-second choice to save Glenn since they didn't have the medical equipment to save him. They had buried him in a nearby cemetery. The two Slayers had carried a large rock over to the grave and Daryl had chiseled 'Theodore 'T-Dog' Douglas' into the stone, followed by his birth year and the date of his death.

Shane was killed by Andrea after he threatened Rick with a gun, she hadn't meant to kill him but she'd startled and accidentally pulled the trigger. Bad luck had the bullet hitting the side of his head, killing him instantly. Too many of the group had witnessed his increasingly erratic behavior and the culmination of it for anyone to be too saddened by his abrupt demise. The Grimes family was the only exception, but Buffy suspected Lori, at the very least, was a little relieved. Andrea had been horrified by her own actions.

Three weeks after they left the Green Farm they had come across a black woman who carried a wicked looking katana and had two walkers on a chained leash who carried her bags for her. Or rather Amy and Andrea had come across her after being temporarily separated from the group after they had been attacked by the herd who had killed T. The group had split and escaped in different directions, and the two sisters had ended up on foot through the woods where the strange woman had saved them from a trio of the geeks.

They had backup plans in place so they all met up at a pre-arranged abandoned house, situated on a semi-hidden property a good distance away from where they'd separated. The deal was, if they got separated or somehow lost track of the group then they were to immediately go to a pre-determined place and wait for the others. They were to wait for one week and one week only, if the missing people hadn't arrived within the seven days then they would be considered dead by the others, and they would move on. It was harsh, but they couldn't risk going back to places crawling with hungry corpses.

It meant their group had been down to 13 for a little while and there were two fewer people to feed. Michonne, the newcomer, meant they were back up to 14. Food was becoming scarce in the area and if they didn't want to starve to death they would need to move on to someplace else. Soon.

The Greene family and their three workers were probably still at the farm, enjoying the rest of their fresh produce and trying to convince themselves the dead would not come for them. That the corpses of their dead family members were only sick and eventually there would be a cure, and they would just need to trust in their God and all would be well. Having faith, as in believing in something invisible and intangible who guided you on the right path, was a good thing in most cases, but you still had to pay attention and use your common sense to make your life better. The people back at the farm were firmly in denial and if they didn't manage to snap out of it it would be their doom.

No amount of talking from any of them had been able to convince Hershel, Maggie, Beth, or any of the others to leave their homestead and come with them. All they would say was that they refused to kill the sick or desecrate their bodies by stabbing them in the head. Buffy had tried to convince them all the way until just before she got into the truck with Daryl. Glenn had somehow ended up bumping uglies with Maggie when they took a car and drove into a nearby town for supplies and any medical equipment they could find. Despite that, he had been unable to convince her to leave her family, claiming it meant nothing. Sometimes having enhanced hearing was not a good thing, particularly if you wanted to allow anyone any privacy.

Lori told Rick she was pregnant just hours before they saw a huge fire in the distance about two weeks after leaving the farm. It had been Faith who'd seen it and she'd later told Buffy. She'd been out learning to hunt with their designated hunter. Tracking and killing the prey had been easy enough once she had an idea of what counted as possible food and what didn't, she'd done something similar with demons and vampires at times even if she'd relied mostly on Intel. It was the parts where she had to field strip her game and then cook it that stumped her. Much to Daryl's amusement and occasional annoyance. Building a safe fire in the woods had been pretty straightforward as well.

The fire had been a concern for some time but rather than wait around and see if it turned into a forest fire they had chosen to leave. It was long past the time where they should've left and now they finally had a proper incentive. Dale's RV had been switched to a newer and smaller model. The old man still drove, and he had the Grimes and Peletier families in the back so the children could get up and move around. It had been decided it would not serve any purpose to have the pre-teens go stir-crazy on the long drives.

Glenn, Jacqui, Faith, and Amy took over the Station Wagon, while Andrea drove the white van with Michonne as a passenger sans pet walkers. Daryl and Buffy brought up the rear in the truck. Four weeks without finding much new food meant they didn't have an abundance to store in the vehicles before they left for good.

They had only been driving for two days when they came across four people walking by the road. Four people who looked vaguely familiar; an old man with white hair, a tall brunette, a shorter blonde, and a brown-haired teenaged boy holding the blonde's hand as they walked.

As they drove up to the family, Daryl rolled down his window, "What happened?" It was brisk and to the point, but this was Daryl and they both wanted answers so Buffy let it go.

"The sick overran my farm and it went up in flames," Mr. Greene replied succinctly, a little out of breath, "We barely managed to get away in one of the trucks." Daryl raised an eyebrow in an obvious question and the veterinarian obliged. "It ran out of gas not far from here and we decided to walk the rest of the way to some friends of ours. They'll put us up."

What followed was an increasingly heated debate which was interrupted by Buffy, "I hate to be the one to point out the obvious, but there's a herd coming up behind us and unless you want to become dinner you better get inside before we're leaving." Her Slayer instincts were screaming to either help these people or attack the undead.

Common sense prevailed when they heard the groaning and shuffling feet in the distance and the family got into the white van as it had the most space, with only Andrea and Michonne in the front. As soon as the door closed Daryl hit the gas and they were off. Adding the Greene family to the group, at least for the time being, meant another four mouths to feed. On the bright side, they now had their own doctor they just needed to find the right supplies for him. Their situation was looking up, especially Lori's as she was the one expecting.


End file.
